Artic Exploration and the Future of the Arctic
The response to the question seeking the rationale for Isaac Israel Hayes setting off for the Open Polar Sea was to determine the farthest or northern most portion of the Earth and therefore establish claim for having been able to navigate the Arctic seas to the farthest point possible.
Currently, the global warming and climate change was noted to have provided the impetus for explorers, entrepreneurs, and environmentalists to exhibit interests in exploring resources within the Arctic territories. These nations include Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and even the United States of America. According to the article written by Graff (2007), these nations are immensely interested in vast natural resources, particularly in potentials for natural oil reserves, of as much as the projected 25% of undiscovered global oil reserves .
In fact, it was disclosed that receding ice from melted polar caps have already made the waters navigable and alerted the United Nations’ international treaty on the Law of the Sea to review defined 200 nautical miles from the shores of the nations to as much as 350 nautical miles, if the country could appropriately prove jurisdiction to it. Likewise, with melting waters, there are apparently more opportunities for establishing potential ventures in conjunction with booming population, as deemed fit.
Finally, a compass is just about useless in the Arctic area as due to factors underlying the magnetic fields and magnetic dip. As asserted, the magnetic field lines were revealed to vary depending on where one is located. Likewise, the magnetic dip is noted to be the angle where the magnetic field is allegedly aligned in the Earth’s surface. As such, when one is on the Arctic area, “a compass needle will want to align with the dip of the field lines and at the poles want to align vertically with the magnet field lines. This is why a magnetic compass is virtually useless at the poles – it tries to point up in the air!” .
References
Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems CRC. (2007). The Earth’s Magnetic Field. Retrieved from SIPEX: http://www.acecrc.sipex.aq/access/page/?page=6c5b9846-b885-102a-8ea7-0019b9ea7c60
Graff, J. (2007, October 1). Arctic: Fight for the Top Of the World. Retrieved from Time Magazine: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1663848,00.html
